I've found during the years that I've leaned more towards not fast traveling at all (or the bare minimum). I think that fast travel takes a lot away from the experience of it all.

Then don't use it? It's a pretty widely accepted thing now and to not put it in would deter a lot more people.

You aren't alone! From an hours per dollar stand point, you actually get more from the game by not fast traveling. That said, I get lazy and schlepping across the wasteland just doesn't seem appealing at the moment so I fast travel.

Nah, to me it's no diffrent to when when a movie fades to black before going to the next scene and serves roughly the same purpose.

True. I feel like I fast travel when I'm going back to the same place over and over again. Like the home base or the main settlement for instance. The new sprinting mechanic might attract more people towards fast travel though. The ones that rely a lot on VATS anyway!

I agree, I think with sprinting now an option I will be more tempted to take the long road in Fallout 4.

I avoided fast travel in a playthrough of Skyrim and it was great - so many little things and random encounters you find on the way. But in the same breath, those aren't going anywhere, so if you can't be bothered sometimes it might not be worth it to constantly retread your steps.

It's easier to avoid fast travel in Morrowind or Fallout 3, since their world maps are much smaller - for Skyrim, it was essential to use a horse. And that won't really be an option in Fallout 4, so I figure I'll have a healthy mix of fast travel and foot travel.

I mix it up, depending on how pressing my mission feels to me. Sometimes I like to take my time and see what happens, usually walk around everywhere at the very start no matter what, just to see what's out there.

Fast travel is a useful thing though, the game is enhanced by it rather than the reverse. It's good to know you can get things done quickly, especially when you need to do things outside of the game as well

I agree to an extent.

But I found that some of the encounters on the roads can really become a drag after awhile. It's like "Random Dragons out of nowhere? That sounds awesome and I get loot!" Until after about 50 times then they just become a pain. Same thing in New Vegas, "They're sending Legion Hit Squads at me? Bring 'um on!" Again until after the 24th attack, Fast Travel starts looking more and more appealing. That and just the countless returns to base.

But I'll try and hold off on it this time. I really do want to see what's out there.

I mean, I try not to fast travel as a rule, but if fast travel encompasses us using a vertibird to get from place to place with the option to power armor-drop into the occasional combat zone, well I just have to try that a few times right?

Yes. Yes you should.

I love exploring in Beth games.... which is why I love Fast Travel. Because it gives me the time to do that exploring & wandering, instead of spending 50%+ of my game time walking the same road back & forth to my house, to drop off loot.

This

If I can get dropped off to my settlements via vertibird from any location, I probably won't use regular fast travel as much. Needless to say, when a quest requires us to go back and forth between locations, it becomes a tad tedious to walk back to it over and over again.

Since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has sprinting I hardly used Fast Travel I used Fast Travel mostly when I went from Skyrim to Solstheim. I did use Fast Travel a few times in Skyrim, but rarely.

In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I only use Fast Travel when I travel to other sections of the video game world map that requires a loading screen to the Skellige Islands, White Orchard, Velen, Novigrad, and Vizima's Palace.

From Novigrad to Velen you can run without any loading screens, but from the Skellige Islands to Novigrad or from the Skellige Islands to Velen you get loading screens.

So for both The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I rarely use Fast Travel.

If I ever purchase Fallout 4 I know for sure I will never use Fast Travel at all, unless there is a place you can only travel by Fast Travel which has a loading screen and cannot be accessed by just running or walking to that place.

Would The Lord of the Rings have lost value if Frodo had fast-travelled to Mordor? In my opinion, the journey is more important than the destination; so I don't fast-travel. If I'm in a hurry, or am required to travel back and forth along the same road several times, I might use something like Skyrim's carriages, which cost money and only can take you to and from certain locations, but I usually try to avoid that.

The inclusion of Fast Travel is essential, and not just from waypoints as the Witcher 3 does it,

Because in any huge game, occasionally you will get stuck having jumped between rocks or barrels or something.

Beyond that, I don't use it as a rule, and excluding emergencies, I don't intend to use Fast Travel in Fallout 4.

You could probably walk with your caravan, to different settlements, i see that being fun, someone made a fallout 3 video about that it was pretty funny.

I think not fast traveling is a good idea if you are starting with the game and everything is new to you... But i think it loses value as you progress and discover. When you are level 50 and almost all landmarks are explored then, for me at least, running across map to complete the fetch quest is not fun

That's exactly why you don't go to every location instantly, depending on how you play, when i first start im not going all ham over beating everything within a month that would just make things sad.

It's always good to have the option. Options are what give people more freedom to play their way and in turn attracts more people to your game.

I won't be using fast travel when I have the time or want to explore. But when I've been to the same place over and over I will definitely be fast travelling.

Yea i would agree to go to one area and go and look for unique things in that area and return back when your happy enough to go see that location, like for example you could come back to that location later in the future when you realize its been awhile since you been there. I did that in fallout 3

it does in my opinion especially on your first playthru and even then i think it losses some of its value

i still playing fo3 fo nv and skyrim and even now i rarely use the fast travel rarely as in almost never

That's a poor anology, though. In a movie, you seldom have a situation where characters have traveled across a world (or section of a world) where various encounters occur, then have the scene jump across that same section to a different scene where the started. In a game, particularly BGS games, the character(s) travel across world sections with lots of encounters, so it makes no sense whatsoever to have the character(s) suddenly "fast travel" back across one of those sections with no encounters when obviously they would have various encounters on the return trip. It's extremely jarring from a role playing perspective and BGS claims their games are RPGs (which can be debated as a different issue, of course).

This is only if a "magic map" is used, naturally. If a logical means of in world transport is offered that would avoid encounters that had previously occurred, then there is no break from immersion. This has to be logical, however, not something shoehorned into the world simply because some players don't want to role play in a supposed RPG.

Frankly, people who claim they need (or even want) fast travel seem to miss the fact that it doesn't even really save any time. I know because I've tested it since Oblivion as that is where BGS introduced it. I do not like fast travel unless it makes sense in the world (e.g., Morrowind's various methods made sense). However, I have tested it out and compared it with simply running across the world and fast travel didn't really save any time to speak of. It isn't worth breaking role play, that's for sure.

In vast open world games, fast travel is a must.

If you made several times the same travel between point A and B and explored everything around it, you possibly would like a fast travel instead of walking 15 minutes through what you saw since 40 hours of gameplay.

Some people like it other don't for several reasons, but still it needs to be present.

It is still up to the player to decide if he /she wants to use the function